Roof Above Spring 2021 Newsletter

SUMMER 2021
Uniting the community to end homelessness, one life at a time
THE IMPORTANCE OF SHOWING UP
Showing Up. That is the theme of this newsletter, and also
a key theme of this past year. I remain in awe of all the ways
our staff have shown up through the unique circumstances
of these last 16 months. Whether it was our shelter staff
showing up even when the shelter was in the midst of a
COVID-19 outbreak, our outreach team members showing
up to support some of our most vulnerable neighbors
in the transition from an encampment to a motel, or our
Liz Clasen-Kelly kitchen staff showing up to serve hundreds more people
every day without the critical resource of volunteers, this team has shown up.
All of this work is only possible because you have shown up with words of
encouragement, sandwiches, financial support, and advocacy for those we
serve. Thank you for your incredible presence with us over this last year. A
teammate said to me the other day, “Everyone on this team is a dancer – we
just keep adjusting our moves as the music around us changes.” As our
COVID-19 numbers subside, our homelessness numbers are not, so we will
keep dancing, continuing to show up for the needs of our neighbors and
working towards solutions. Roof Above holds on to the sense of urgency,
understanding home is still critical to provide safety, stability, and dignity in
people’s lives.
EVERYONE ON
THIS TEAM IS
A DANCER –
WE JUST KEEP
ADJUSTING OUR
MOVES AS THE
MUSIC AROUND
US CHANGES
Roof Above staff

THE RIGHT ATTITUDE POWERS PASSION
AND CREATES POSITIVE CHANGE
“It’s not just what we do, but how we do it,” Liz Clasen-Kelly, CEO, Roof Above.
Roof Above has never closed its doors, especially during the pandemic. Our kitchens continue to run seven days a week, we
continue to provide testing and vaccinations, we continue to shelter our most vulnerable neighbors. Even during these times of
uncertainty, we opened new permanent supportive housing and welcomed new tenants. This work would not be possible without
the enthusiastic and generous support of our community and the commitment of our passionate staff. We want to introduce you
to a few.
MARY KATHERINE
BLACK, Volunteer
Coordinator. Along
with the Day Services
Team, Mary Katherine
coordinates mail for
1,900 people served
at the Day Services
Center and six remote
program sites.
CHRIS BOOKER,
Food Services Director.
Working with the
Tryon Shelter kitchen
staff, Chris prepares
hundreds of delicious
and nutritious meals
seven days a week for
delivery to our guests
sheltered at motel
sites.
CEDRIC MACK,
Winter Shelter
Supervisor. Working
with the shelter staff,
Cedric re-opened the
Lucille Giles Center
shelter on Statesville
Avenue as an
alternative to Room
In The Inn, adding
116 beds per night
to our emergency
shelter capacity. The
Lucille Giles Center
continues to operate.
AMY WARNER,
Scattered-Site Nurse,
LPN. Amy and other
medical staff provide
COVID-19 testing and
vaccines at all sites for
those we serve.
BETH TROTTER,
Philanthropy
Resources
Coordinator. Beth and
the site coordinators
manage the receipt
and distribution of
thousands of in-kind
donations of food
and needed items.
An influx poured in
during the pandemic
from generous donors.
DEWETT WILSON,
Director of Homeful
Housing. Dewett and
his team welcomed
the first 11 tenants
to our permanent
supportive housing
community at
HillRock Estates
that will ultimately
house 75 neighbors
who have longterm
experiences of
homelessness.

BEING PRESENT CAN
SAVE A LIFE
In May 2020, John Lyles met the man who would
help save his life.
Facing serious health issues and no longer able
to work, Mr. Lyles turned to Roof Above’s Tryon
Shelter for a safe place to stay. There he met
housing navigator Kileem Slayton and they
began to work together on food assistance and
housing. During the pandemic, as shelter guests
were moved into motels to ensure safe social
distancing, Mr. Lyles continued to keep his
appointments with Kileem.
One day, Mr. Lyles was on time as usual, but
something wasn’t right. Kileem recalls, “When
Mr. Lyles walked into my office, he was sweating
like he had just run a marathon, which made me
attentive. He was disoriented and his speech was
impaired.” From his first aid training, Kileem
recognized the signs of a possible stroke. At first,
Mr. Lyles didn’t believe him but called his niece
to take him to the hospital, where a stroke was
confirmed.
Mr. Lyles is convinced he “would have been dead
without Kileem.”
Kileem sees it differently. “I think Mr. Lyles
saved his own life because he was consistently
meeting with me so often that I could compare
his appearance and behavior. I knew something
was wrong.”
John Lyles and Kileem Slayton
Niece Sabrina Lyles helps her uncle, keeping up with
the medical paperwork and attending all his doctor
appointments. When Mr. Lyles first went to Tryon Shelter, she
was afraid for him to go because of his fragile health. She says
that his experience “has opened my eyes to what all you do
here, and I am grateful.”
Like all our staff at Roof Above, Kileem strives to be present
for each person. Mr. Lyles says, “I know y’all deal with
hundreds or thousands of lives. This young man still treats
everyone like they are the only ones.”
I THINK MR. LYLES SAVED HIS OWN LIFE BECAUSE
HE WAS CONSISTENTLY MEETING WITH ME SO
OFTEN THAT I COULD COMPARE HIS APPEARANCE
AND BEHAVIOR. I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG.
— KILEEM SLAYTON

KINGS ON LAMAR:
ONE YEAR LATER
Community matters. That’s one lesson Director of
Income Services Joe Hamby says has been apparent in
Kings on Lamar, a dormitory-based shelter program for
working men started in spring 2020. With funds from
the local community and the CARES Act, Roof Above
took over two Lamar Avenue residence halls belonging
to the former Kings College. Men are sheltered in dorm
rooms, with shared kitchen and bathrooms.
“Small community is beautiful,” says Hamby. “With 69 men,
our guests find community among the staff and among each
other.” The small population gives the program more of a
neighborhood feel, allowing staff to engage with guests on
a frequent basis, sometimes daily. “Men who might escape
notice in a larger group can be seen here.”
Accountability has been a key element of the program.
Guests sign a Contract for Success and complete a ‘One
Man One Plan’ entry form to outline their intentions for
employment, housing, financial stability and personal
growth. A 120-day Moving Home Success Goal provides
what Hamby calls “positive urgency” to energize the
housing process.
Located adjacent to a park, the dormitories have
expansive windows in each room, connecting guests
Joe Hamby (right) works with a shelter guest
with the beautiful outdoors. The breezeway between the
two campus buildings provides a spot for guests to relax
and converse. Hamby says the architectural features
and greenspace of the campus have contributed to the
program’s success. So far, 81% of participants have had
positive transitions to independent housing.
Created as a response to the pandemic, the Kings on
Lamar program will wrap up on July 31, 2021. As we
reflect on the lessons learned during this opportunity,
we will explore how we can build on its success for more
innovative solutions to end homelessness for working
men. Hamby is already dreaming of a broader, truly
transformational program, with a mandatory learning
component that takes guests on a journey of healing,
self-reckoning and personal discipline. “We want to go
upstream with a focus on real and lasting change.”
A PATH TO INDEPENDENCE
In the spring of 2020, Roof Above
launched the MeckHome program that
provides steps for working men to move
from the shelter to independent living in
market-rate housing. The vision includes
subsidized housing
units shared by two
participants with
case management
and budgeting
support. Staff,
like Employment
Specialist April
Hood, work closely
with program
participants,
April Hood
reminding them
of their goals, restating their own
words to motivate them through the
highs and lows of their journey out of
homelessness.
In May 2021, a year after MeckHome’s
launch, the first participants began
graduating from the program, moving
into stable housing, and we are inspired
by their success.
Among the first graduates are two men
who completed the year-long program of
sharing an apartment and saving money
while they worked with April to increase
their income through intentional steps.
One man changed jobs for higher pay
and one man took a second job.
In addition to housing and
transportation costs, both
men maintained child support
responsibilities, and one paid off a
former eviction fine with funds he saved.
Case Manager Adam Calderone says,
“This illustrates what some of these
guys are up against and their ability to
still persevere through it.”
The MeckHome
program includes
an incentive
bonus to provide a
financial cushion
for the future. As
Adam Calderone
completion time
drew near, these two men concluded
that shared housing had been a
good experience for them and they
decided to move together to a marketrate
apartment complex, using their
combined exit bonuses to pay the
deposit and first month’s rent.
Katie Church, director of shared
housing, is excited to share their
success. “Exiting to shared housing is
not required, but it is an outcome we
love to see. They doubled the impact
of their bonuses and are now living
independently in a really nice place!”

WHAT SHOULD I DO
IF I SEE SOMEONE
EXPERIENCING
HOMELESSNESS?
Unsheltered homelessness (or “street homelessness”) became
increasingly visible over the course of the pandemic, in part
because tents that were previously tucked away in smaller
pockets moved into larger and more concentrated spaces.
This increased visibility has led to an increased interest in
what can be done to help our unsheltered neighbors.
Roof Above’s outreach team is out in the community every
day, checking on our neighbors experiencing unsheltered
homelessness and getting them the resources they need. Our
outreach team includes compassionate, empathetic, caring
individuals who work on the front lines.
Caleb Sauls is one of our unsheltered housing navigators that
conducts street outreach. His role is to establish trust, work to
meet people’s needs, and ultimately set a path towards housing.
When asked what a regular day looks like, Caleb shares that
it’s a balancing act of finding new people that have yet to be
connected to services and contacting the individuals you’ve
already connected with. “Oftentimes, it’s sitting down and
listening, building rapport. Some people just like to have
someone to listen to them. If you are speaking more than they
are speaking, you’re doing it wrong.”
WE ARE OFTEN ASKED BY THE
COMMUNITY, “WHAT SHOULD I DO
IF I SEE SOMEONE EXPERIENCING
HOMELESSNESS?”
We are grateful for the Charlotte community
making us aware of people in need. Here are
immediate steps you can take:
1
2
3
Invite the individual to visit Roof Above’s Day
Services Center at 945 N. College St. We are open
M-F 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sat. & Sun. 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Make a request for our street outreach team
to check in on the individual and situation at
https://bit.ly/3vxYqZk.
Inquire if the individual has called 2-1-1. If they
have not, encourage them to do so. Available
24/7, coordinated entry is a process that aims to
connect individuals and families who are homeless,
or those at imminent risk of homelessness, to an
existing available shelter/housing resource in the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg community.
Caleb Sauls
“When you step into a
camp, you have to be
aware of what you are
bringing in there with
you. What biases and
assumptions are you
bringing with you?
Hannah Sisk and Caleb Sauls
You also need cultural
humility – you will never
know what someone’s
lived experience is, and you have to know that each person
comes with their own stuff, like everyone else,” Caleb shared.
A large part of what the street outreach team does is help
individuals experiencing homelessness navigate the system.
“You have no idea how many e-mail accounts I have set up,” says
Hannah Sisk, also an unsheltered housing navigator. “So much
of my day is researching to get individuals connected to veteran
services, counseling, housing, to separated family members.”
‘Success’ in street outreach might look less traditional than
you would expect. According to Caleb, it might be that
someone finally feels comfortable enough to come on campus
to eat lunch or do their laundry. In addition, success is not
always linear. “It doesn’t matter how many times someone
tries; as long as they keep trying, we will support them.”
COVID-19 has impacted people living in the tents and the
ability of the outreach team to connect with them. Caleb
observes that wearing masks can be challenging because
you don’t get to see micro expressions, and neighbors don’t
get to see and recognize your face. On a broader level, since
the encampment clearing in February and more than 200
people into motels, the work has stretched to support people
in motels as well as those remaining on the street. It’s been a
good opportunity to educate the larger Charlotte community
and identify the needs of our unsheltered neighbors.
When asked what the most important thing is for people to know
about street outreach, Caleb responds, “A very small percentage
of people are homeless by choice. More people are willing to go a
next step that offers more freedom, such as a home of their own.
People need respect, dignity, and a place to exist.”

PO Box 31335
Charlotte, NC 28231
WWW.ROOFABOVE.ORG
Non-profit
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Charlotte, NC
Permit No. 2451
Uniting the community to end
homelessness, one life at a time
WE LOVE OUR
VOLUNTEERS!
Roof Above depends on the generosity of volunteers to meet the
daily needs of our homeless neighbors. Every year, nearly 10,000
volunteers lend their hearts and hands to our work. WOW! We are
profoundly grateful for your passion and willingness to serve. We
simply could not do this without you.
At the onset of the pandemic, on-site volunteerism was suspended
for the health and safety of everyone – neighbors, shelter guests,
tenants, staff and volunteers. We have all missed each other! We’ve
also missed getting to meet new volunteers eager to join us in the
work of ending homelessness.
Some aspects of life are returning to ‘normal,’ but we know that
the vulnerability of those we serve is vitally important. Please bear
with us as we have started to re-open for volunteers, in a measured
and planful way.
HOW YOU CAN HELP!
We are re-opening for volunteers in a measured
and thoughtful way. Check out the below
opportunities to support Roof Above!
FOOD DONATIONS, WISH LIST ITEMS, AND
HOUSING PROGRAM NEEDS:
https://www.urbanministrycenter.org/helping-thehomeless/ways-you-can-help/donate/our-wishlist/
DRINK GROUP OPPORTUNITIES:
http://vhub.at/drinkgroups
MEAL SHELTER GROUP OPPORTUNITIES:
http://vhub.at/mealshelter
INDIVIDUAL VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES:
http://vhub.at/Individualvolunteer
@ROOFABOVE